BlazeLime Strong and Moving!

Lancoor A very feeble attempt at affirmatie action

Robert Joyner The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

Anoushka Slater While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Panamint Our ancient announcer Francis Bushman in the "First Worldwide Broadcast" promises us "world shattering history". This film does document one great historic fact- the launching of the first lawn furniture into space. The lawn furniture wasn't enhanced, spray painted or otherwise disguised as space equipment- it was just launched "as-is" as purchased at the local Sears store in 1960. True history was thus made in the annals of space exploration.We also know that the same flight launched the first hopeless alcoholic into space- Tom Conway. Truly historic wasn't it? The first dog- a shy flop eared cocker spaniel presumably from the same back yard as the lawn furniture- was also launched on this flight.These brave astronauts flew 240,000 miles to be threatened by a small pit of sand. Fantastic! And a shower without water! A film without budget! Its historic!

wes-connors Speaking for the "International Space Order" of Earth, Francis X. Bushman announces our planet's "Lunar Eagle 1" mission to the Moon. It will be Earth's first manned Moon mission, and features a diverse crew of twelve leading scientists: American Captain and hunk Ken Clark (as John Anderson), Japanese photographer and pharmacist Michi Kobi (as Hideko Murata), Russian geologist and mapmaker Tom Conway (as Feodor Orloff), handsome Brazilian pilot Anthony Dexter (as Luis Vargas), German spaceship architect John Wengraf (as Erich Heinrich), young mathematics genius Robert Montgomery Jr. (as Roddy "Rod" Murdock), British geophysicist Phillip Baird (as William Rochester), Polish-born Israeli aeronautic engineer Richard Weber (as David Ruskin), Turkish space medicine expert Muzaffer Tema (as Selim Hamid), French engineer and technician Roger Til (as Etienne Martel), Nigerian astronomer Cory Devlin (as Asmara Markonen), and beautiful Swedish physician Anna-Lisa (as Sigrid Bomark).The filmmakers get Mr. Clark to strip down to a towel, early in the flight, when he interrupts Ms Kobi taking an "ultrasound shower" (the towel would be for modesty, since no drying is involved). When the crew lands on the Moon, and exits the ship, you can clearly see a man on the moon, walking away from the camera. This is probably a stagehand or somebody caught on the set in error. Well, the crew claims the Moon as international territory for the planet Earth; then, they look for air and signs of life. They find both. And, the Moon inhabitants are understandably not amused by the appearance of Earthlings on their world. Let the battle begin! The main story becomes the conflict between the representatives of Earth and the emotionless Moon beings, and whether or not they will be able to resolve their differences. There is a well-meaning parallel to Earth's overcoming of differences, with this "diverse" group presented as evidence. The sub-plot involving German "Heinrich" and Israeli "Ruskin" drives the point home. The fate of cats "Mimi" and "Rodolfo" is never resolved, unfortunately. Relatives to watch include Bob Montgomery Jr. (son of Robert & brother of Elizabeth Montgomery, in his best feature film part) and Tom Conway (brother of George Sanders).*** 12 to the Moon (6/60) David Bradley ~ Ken Clark, John Wengraf, Robert Montgomery Jr.

bensonmum2 Twelve scientists from around the world are selected to be part of the crew that will be the first to land on the moon. Once there, they begin their work, but it doesn't take long before they realize they are not alone. A mysterious underground race of beings kidnaps two of the crew members and demands the others leave at once. In their haste to get away, another scientist is lost in an accident. As they near Earth on their return, they discover the inhabitants of the moon have frozen all of North America. They come up with a plan to use the heat of a volcano to reverse the freezing process. But this will require the sacrifice of two members of their party to fly the ship into a volcanic crater. Will their plan work? I would be willing to overlook a lot of 12 to the Moon's shortcomings if the movie had any originality. Many of the plot points and set-pieces seem to be almost identical to those found in First Spaceship on Venus. While IMDb lists a release date of 1962 for First Spaceship on Venus, that's the North American release date. The film was released in early 1960 in West Germany. It would have been more than possible for someone to have seen that movie before making 12 to the Moon. I have no idea if I'm right about this, but if you've seen both movies, you undoubtedly noticed the similarities as I did.Beyond the films lack of originality, 12 to the Moon is pretty much a mess. Visible scaffolding and crew members, cheap looking sets, and an unnecessary Nazi subplot are among the many problems found in the movie. I'm not including the poor special effects in this list because, as bad as they are, I've seen far worse in other movies of this type. And besides, who doesn't expect to find problems with the special effects in a movie like 12 to the Moon – that's part of the charm of sci-fi films from the 50s and early 60s.

lemon_magic What's fun about this "first men into space" movie is watching how the movie tries so hard to convince the viewer that it is in fact a serious dramatic effort displaying the "cutting edge of science" and then shoots itself in the foot over and over again with laughable special effects and goofs. I almost fell out my chair laughing when the astronauts climbed into the control room and it became instantly obvious that the astronauts were expected to sit in patio lounge chairs to help them endure the crushing stresses of lift off. And then after going through the motions of the trip to the moon - blah blah meteor showers blah blah sonic showers blah blah random lines of dialog meant to convey character and group dynamics...just before the actual embarkation onto the surface, one poor actor has to stand in front of the camera all by himself and babble into his flight log about the 'invisible ray shield' that is supposed to keep his helmet sealed...instead of, you know, a transparent visor or a simple bubble helmet. I mean, geez, considering the quality of the acting in this movie (nothing against the actors - they just don't have ANYTHING to work with) you wouldn't think they'd mind if the helmets obscured the actors' faces, would you? Oh, and apparently cocker spaniels, monkeys and house cats are immune to the forces of lift off, even though it almost kills the oldest astronaut. The dog just sits on the end of a leash tied to a wall, and the cats and moneys ride out the whole thing in cages. And then they are ON the surface of the moon, and it's just ludicrous. It's so obviously a sound-stage made of lathe wood, paper mache and gray paint that it considers vast viewer effort to suspend disbelief and not look too hard. I tended to squint at the screen a lot, and that really helped. And it turns out that the nations of the world spent millions of dollars to send 12 people to the moon, but they only supplied the astronauts with 2 hours of oxygen for their space suits. And let's see, blah blah blah quicksand pit, blah blah meteors blah blah two of the astronauts disappear, blah blah the aliens living in the moon want the cats, blah blah they take off, blah blah another meteor shower (or maybe the same one) on the way back, the aliens decide to freeze the earth, blah blah cooperation and selfless sacrifice, blah blah, and the special effects budget completely runs out and you can clearly see the stick holding the model of the rocket-ship in front of the camera.Then blah blah blah, the selfless sacrifice convinces the aliens, the moral, and THE END. Frankly, I preferred "Rocket Shop X-M" and "First Spaceship to Venus". Why didn't someone think to call Issac Asimov, Arthur Clarke, Murray Leinster or Lester Del Rey, four 'hard science' science fiction writers of the era who would have been available for cheap? And yet, you can't hate a film like this. The actors were given cardboard characters to play (which is natural when you've got TWELVE PEOPLE FIGHTING FOR SCREEN TIME in a two hour movie, unless the screenwriter and directors are geniuses.) but they really did their best with the material. And the movie takes a pretty bold step (way before "Star Trek") by asserting the need for an international crew (including Russians, Jews, and Blacks) in a time when White Manifest Destiny was the rule in the movie industry. As lazy as the movie was with the technical details and the science, it was ABOUT something and had a message of hope and destiny that you rarely see outside of Disney films any more. Don't waste your time seeking this one out, but if it falls into your hands, you might get a kick out of watching.